Masao Yokota received a Bachelor degree from Kyushu Institute of Technology, and Master and Doctor degrees from Kyushu University. He is now a professor of informatics at Fukuoka Institute of Technology. His research focus is on AI, especially in integrative multimedia understanding by robots in being as 'natural' as humans where natural language understanding (NLU) plays the central role. He has proposed 'Mental Image Directed Semantic Theory (MIDST)' based on a hypothesis that NLU in humans is mental image processing. MIDST provides an omnisensory mental image model and a formal language called 'Lmd (Language for Mental Image Description)'. This formal language has been already implemented on several versions of the intelligent system IMAGES including integrative multimedia understanding system IMAGES-M and conversation management system CMS. Dr. Yokota has authored numerous articles on AI and was the leader of many projects funded by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT), and Fukuoka Institute of Technology (FIT).

This is an excellent resource for scientists and engineers looking to develop a deep natural language understanding system for application in robotics, currently one of the most critical areas of development for artificial intelligence technologies. The book is very well written and easy to follow for readers with a good background in artificial intelligence or natural language processing. The considerable number of examples and diagrams included make this volume particularly valuable for students. The examples illustrating machine understanding of Japanese offer an exciting bonus for readers engaged in machine translation or computational linguistics.-- J. Brzezinski, McHenry County College, Choice, 2020 Vol. 58 No. 2

• Introduction, Anna - an ideal home robot, Intuitive human-robot interaction, Integrative multimedia understanding and natural language understanding, Knowledge and cognition, Natural Language Processing Viewed from Semantics, Trends in machine translation, Case study of current MT systems (as of October, 2018), Fundamentals for Robotic NLU, NLU in accordance with semiotics, Syntactic analysis, Semantic analysis and pragmatic analysis, Robust NLU, Response synthesis, Syntax and semantics of discourse, Cognitive Essentials for Midst, Functional model of human mind, Human knowledge and cognitive propensities, Semantics and mental image, QSIs (quasi-symbolic images) and human concept system, Primitive quasi-symbolic images, Perception of causality, Semantic articulation and QSI connectors, Negation of mental image, Imaginary space region, Computational Model of Mental Image, Atomic locus as primitive QSI, Temporal conjunctions as QSI connectors, Empty event, Attributes and Standards, Formal System, Semantic principle of Lmd, Syntax of Lmd, Tempo-logical connectives, Formulation of event concepts, Formulation of laws of the world, Fundamental Postulates and Inference Rules for Deductive System, Properties of Loci, Inference rules for deduction, Tempo-logical deduction with TLCs, Human-Specific Semantics of 4d Language as Mental Images, Conventional approaches to 4D language understanding, 4D language semantics as mental images, Formulation of concepts of spatial prepositions, Properties of static 4D concepts as human intuitive mental images, Reversal operation on spatial change event concepts as mental images, Problem Finding and Solving in Formal System, Definition of problem and task, Creation problem finding and solving, Maintenance problem finding and solving, Human Language Understanding by Robots, Two-staged robotic NLU, Robotic concept system for iHRI, Compound concept system for robots, Robot manipulation as cross-media operation via Lmd, Aware computing in robots, Homogeneous/Inhomogeneous Communication, 4d Language Understanding for Cognitive Robotics, Requirements for robotic NLU, Logical Adequacy of Lmd, Translation between NL and Lmd, Reasoning in Lmd, Anchoring via Lmd, Behavioralization via Lmd, Systematic interpretation of Lmd, Multilingual Operation Via Lmd, Meaning definition, Optimization of grammatical description for word meaning definition, Language operation via Lmd, Question answering through Lmd, Computational Model of Japanese for NLU, Brief description of basic Japanese, Phrase structure grammar for Japanese, Dependency grammar for Japanese, Sentence and discourse of Japanese, Sentence types of Japanese and phrasing, Implementation of Mental-Image Based Understanding, Configuration of CMS, MBU versus conventional NLU, Stimulus sentences to CMS and human subjects, Mental image based understanding by CMS, Problem finding and solving in CMS, Awareness control of CMS, Conclusions, References.

Masao Yokota received a Bachelor degree from Kyushu Institute of Technology, and Master and Doctor degrees from Kyushu University. He is now a professor of informatics at Fukuoka Institute of Technology. His research focus is on AI, especially in integrative multimedia understanding by robots in being as 'natural' as humans where natural language understanding (NLU) plays the central role. He has proposed 'Mental Image Directed Semantic Theory (MIDST)' based on a hypothesis that NLU in humans is mental image processing. MIDST provides an omnisensory mental image model and a formal language called 'Lmd (Language for Mental Image Description)'. This formal language has been already implemented on several versions of the intelligent system IMAGES including integrative multimedia understanding system IMAGES-M and conversation management system CMS. Dr. Yokota has authored numerous articles on AI and was the leader of many projects funded by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT), and Fukuoka Institute of Technology (FIT).

This is an excellent resource for scientists and engineers looking to develop a deep natural language understanding system for application in robotics, currently one of the most critical areas of development for artificial intelligence technologies. The book is very well written and easy to follow for readers with a good background in artificial intelligence or natural language processing. The considerable number of examples and diagrams included make this volume particularly valuable for students. The examples illustrating machine understanding of Japanese offer an exciting bonus for readers engaged in machine translation or computational linguistics.-- J. Brzezinski, McHenry County College, Choice, 2020 Vol. 58 No. 2

• Introduction, Anna - an ideal home robot, Intuitive human-robot interaction, Integrative multimedia understanding and natural language understanding, Knowledge and cognition, Natural Language Processing Viewed from Semantics, Trends in machine translation, Case study of current MT systems (as of October, 2018), Fundamentals for Robotic NLU, NLU in accordance with semiotics, Syntactic analysis, Semantic analysis and pragmatic analysis, Robust NLU, Response synthesis, Syntax and semantics of discourse, Cognitive Essentials for Midst, Functional model of human mind, Human knowledge and cognitive propensities, Semantics and mental image, QSIs (quasi-symbolic images) and human concept system, Primitive quasi-symbolic images, Perception of causality, Semantic articulation and QSI connectors, Negation of mental image, Imaginary space region, Computational Model of Mental Image, Atomic locus as primitive QSI, Temporal conjunctions as QSI connectors, Empty event, Attributes and Standards, Formal System, Semantic principle of Lmd, Syntax of Lmd, Tempo-logical connectives, Formulation of event concepts, Formulation of laws of the world, Fundamental Postulates and Inference Rules for Deductive System, Properties of Loci, Inference rules for deduction, Tempo-logical deduction with TLCs, Human-Specific Semantics of 4d Language as Mental Images, Conventional approaches to 4D language understanding, 4D language semantics as mental images, Formulation of concepts of spatial prepositions, Properties of static 4D concepts as human intuitive mental images, Reversal operation on spatial change event concepts as mental images, Problem Finding and Solving in Formal System, Definition of problem and task, Creation problem finding and solving, Maintenance problem finding and solving, Human Language Understanding by Robots, Two-staged robotic NLU, Robotic concept system for iHRI, Compound concept system for robots, Robot manipulation as cross-media operation via Lmd, Aware computing in robots, Homogeneous/Inhomogeneous Communication, 4d Language Understanding for Cognitive Robotics, Requirements for robotic NLU, Logical Adequacy of Lmd, Translation between NL and Lmd, Reasoning in Lmd, Anchoring via Lmd, Behavioralization via Lmd, Systematic interpretation of Lmd, Multilingual Operation Via Lmd, Meaning definition, Optimization of grammatical description for word meaning definition, Language operation via Lmd, Question answering through Lmd, Computational Model of Japanese for NLU, Brief description of basic Japanese, Phrase structure grammar for Japanese, Dependency grammar for Japanese, Sentence and discourse of Japanese, Sentence types of Japanese and phrasing, Implementation of Mental-Image Based Understanding, Configuration of CMS, MBU versus conventional NLU, Stimulus sentences to CMS and human subjects, Mental image based understanding by CMS, Problem finding and solving in CMS, Awareness control of CMS, Conclusions, References.

Masao Yokota received a Bachelor degree from Kyushu Institute of Technology, and Master and Doctor degrees from Kyushu University. He is now a professor of informatics at Fukuoka Institute of Technology. His research focus is on AI, especially in integrative multimedia understanding by robots in being as 'natural' as humans where natural language understanding (NLU) plays the central role. He has proposed 'Mental Image Directed Semantic Theory (MIDST)' based on a hypothesis that NLU in humans is mental image processing. MIDST provides an omnisensory mental image model and a formal language called 'Lmd (Language for Mental Image Description)'. This formal language has been already implemented on several versions of the intelligent system IMAGES including integrative multimedia understanding system IMAGES-M and conversation management system CMS. Dr. Yokota has authored numerous articles on AI and was the leader of many projects funded by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT), and Fukuoka Institute of Technology (FIT).

This is an excellent resource for scientists and engineers looking to develop a deep natural language understanding system for application in robotics, currently one of the most critical areas of development for artificial intelligence technologies. The book is very well written and easy to follow for readers with a good background in artificial intelligence or natural language processing. The considerable number of examples and diagrams included make this volume particularly valuable for students. The examples illustrating machine understanding of Japanese offer an exciting bonus for readers engaged in machine translation or computational linguistics.-- J. Brzezinski, McHenry County College, Choice, 2020 Vol. 58 No. 2

• Introduction, Anna - an ideal home robot, Intuitive human-robot interaction, Integrative multimedia understanding and natural language understanding, Knowledge and cognition, Natural Language Processing Viewed from Semantics, Trends in machine translation, Case study of current MT systems (as of October, 2018), Fundamentals for Robotic NLU, NLU in accordance with semiotics, Syntactic analysis, Semantic analysis and pragmatic analysis, Robust NLU, Response synthesis, Syntax and semantics of discourse, Cognitive Essentials for Midst, Functional model of human mind, Human knowledge and cognitive propensities, Semantics and mental image, QSIs (quasi-symbolic images) and human concept system, Primitive quasi-symbolic images, Perception of causality, Semantic articulation and QSI connectors, Negation of mental image, Imaginary space region, Computational Model of Mental Image, Atomic locus as primitive QSI, Temporal conjunctions as QSI connectors, Empty event, Attributes and Standards, Formal System, Semantic principle of Lmd, Syntax of Lmd, Tempo-logical connectives, Formulation of event concepts, Formulation of laws of the world, Fundamental Postulates and Inference Rules for Deductive System, Properties of Loci, Inference rules for deduction, Tempo-logical deduction with TLCs, Human-Specific Semantics of 4d Language as Mental Images, Conventional approaches to 4D language understanding, 4D language semantics as mental images, Formulation of concepts of spatial prepositions, Properties of static 4D concepts as human intuitive mental images, Reversal operation on spatial change event concepts as mental images, Problem Finding and Solving in Formal System, Definition of problem and task, Creation problem finding and solving, Maintenance problem finding and solving, Human Language Understanding by Robots, Two-staged robotic NLU, Robotic concept system for iHRI, Compound concept system for robots, Robot manipulation as cross-media operation via Lmd, Aware computing in robots, Homogeneous/Inhomogeneous Communication, 4d Language Understanding for Cognitive Robotics, Requirements for robotic NLU, Logical Adequacy of Lmd, Translation between NL and Lmd, Reasoning in Lmd, Anchoring via Lmd, Behavioralization via Lmd, Systematic interpretation of Lmd, Multilingual Operation Via Lmd, Meaning definition, Optimization of grammatical description for word meaning definition, Language operation via Lmd, Question answering through Lmd, Computational Model of Japanese for NLU, Brief description of basic Japanese, Phrase structure grammar for Japanese, Dependency grammar for Japanese, Sentence and discourse of Japanese, Sentence types of Japanese and phrasing, Implementation of Mental-Image Based Understanding, Configuration of CMS, MBU versus conventional NLU, Stimulus sentences to CMS and human subjects, Mental image based understanding by CMS, Problem finding and solving in CMS, Awareness control of CMS, Conclusions, References.